Triumph Bank Turns in Another Profit

By Andy Meek

It’s hiring, making plenty of new loans, growing its pool of assets, opening new offices – and enjoying a now long-unbroken run in profitability.

Triumph Bank’s latest quarterly numbers are in, and the result is the bank ending comfortably in the black for the 14th straight quarter. The bank in recent weeks presented its second quarter financials to shareholders. And they included raising more than $12 million in new capital, money that was used to purchase investments and for other general corporate purposes.

Though Triumph can fetch a bigger yield making loans than it can through its own investments at the moment, Triumph president Will Chase and executive vice president and chief operating officer Mike McCarver reassured shareholders the bank has a plan and is working it.

“The increase in investments enhances our liquidity and positions our balance sheet to be conservatively leveraged again in the future,” they wrote in a letter to shareholders. “This leveraging has already begun to happen as net loans increased … during the second quarter of 2012. This is in line with our aggressive, but conservative, growth philosophy.”

That growth philosophy includes a tangible result Triumph is striving for: It’s now six months into a five-year goal of doubling the size of the bank.

The plan for that growth includes hiring, more loans and maybe a bigger area footprint. Chase said earlier this year his bank has been growing by about 20 percent annually – and “it’s organic growth.”

“The long and short of it – our board, we sat down and said we went from zero to $350 million in roughly five years, and let’s just do it again,” Chase said.

During the second quarter, Triumph grew its total assets 21 percent compared to the same period in 2011. During the first half of the year, the bank also hired 12 employees and acquired a new Germantown banking office at the corner of West and North streets.

“These expenditures are part of the base of our future growth,” Chase and McCarver wrote to shareholders. “The percentage increase in expenses (for) the second half of the year should slow and our income growth should accelerate.

“Lastly, our asset quality continues to hold up despite the many ‘fits and starts’ our economy is experiencing. We are proud to report that we had no loans more than 30 days past due as of June 30.”

It was a remarkable achievement, they went on, to have no loans more than a month past due on a loan portfolio of $272 million. With a nod to Triumph’s 62 employees and 13 outside directors, they summed up that it “really does take a village” to achieve results like that.